
Alphabet
Risk Level:
Summary:
Alphabet (the parent company of Google and its many subsidiaries) has demonstrated a willingness to censor a wide range of voices, mostly conservatives and Christians, on its platforms and police-protected speech in discriminatory ways. Google discriminates against conservative and religious nonprofits in its charitable policies and regularly uses its corporate reputation to advance ideological causes. Google does not have viewpoint protections for its employees. For these reasons, Google receives a "High Risk" rating.
Has denied service to customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.
Google has not operated as a neutral corporation. The organization has a history of disproportionately censoring conservative ideas and messages. In 2021, the Google Play store removed the free-speech Parler social media app (1). In 2019, Google disbanded an advisory board because it included Kay Cole James, the former president of the Heritage Foundation (2). YouTube also has censored many conservative channels and videos like those of PragerU, the Heritage Foundation, and Live Action (3)(4)(5). In one instance, eyewitness accounts reported that Google subsidiary YouTube de-platformed an educational institution, Hillsdale College, by shutting down its livestream of an in-person and online event held to discuss the economic implications of the so-called “Great Reset.” In another instance, YouTube censored a panel discussion in which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and several renowned epidemiologists discussed the scientific studies regarding the efficacy of masking policies amongst children (6). Multiple employees have claimed viewpoint discrimination caused their terminations from Google, prompting Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) to write a letter to the CEO of Google demanding answers to its various censorship of conservative voices and channels (7)(8). A few months later, a study found that Google sends Republican campaign emails to spam over 1.5x more than Democrat emails (9)(10). YouTube censored a talk from theologian Carl Trueman discussing the Christian view of sexuality for a “content violation” (11). Google terminated the Gmail account of Gays Against Groomers, “a coalition of gays against the sexualization, indoctrination and medicalization of children” (12)(13). After Giorgia Meloni became the new Prime Minister of Italy, YouTube took down a years-old video of the politician giving a speech criticizing “global elites” (14). A Google employee was fired after reporting sexual harassment claims to HR against a female executive; in the ongoing lawsuit, the plaintiff describes being told that he was fired for not being “inclusive,” being “ableist” by commenting on the walking paces of fellow employees, and that Google needed to fire a white man to make room for more women on the team (15).
Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.
Employment policies fail to protect against discrimination based on political affiliation/views and/or religion.
Alphabet and Google do not protect their employees from viewpoint discrimination (1).
Uses corporate reputation to support ideological causes and/or organizations hostile to freedom of expression.
Google advocates for the Equality Act and transgender participation in female sports (1)(2). It also decided to corporately oppose Georgia’s voting integrity legislation and other states’ election reform laws (3). While still Executive Chairman at Google, former CEO Eric Schmidt served on the Democratic Victory Task Force (4). Google also implemented “antiracism” training that taught that all Americans are “raised to be racist” (5). Google opposed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibits teaching gender identity and sexual orientation in schools to kids in K-3rd grade (6). Google Docs released an update in 2022 to suggest edits for “more inclusive” language on its Docs (7). Google opposed North Carolina’s “Bathroom Bill” that forced people to use the bathroom of their biological gender (8).
Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.
Google dissolved its charitable fund and gave all of its assets, over $40 million, to the far-left Tides Foundation, a progressive grant-making organization (1). It is also a Platinum Sponsor of the Human Rights Campaign (2). Google is also a member of many partisan organizations, both liberal and conservative (3). Google has run giving campaigns for Planned Parenthood (4). Alphabet also uses corporate funds to provide travel benefits for abortions (5). The company even offered to relocate employees who wanted to move states due to abortion restrictions (6).
Uses corporate political contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.
Google contributes in a bipartisan manner consistent with its business interests (1).
All links were last accessed and all information was updated on:
March 21, 2023
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